Stage Favourites:
*****Szmyd(IBA) ****Serpa(CAR) ***Atapuma(SAH)
**De Weert(SWI) *Pires(NES)

8 KM of flat and 8 KM of a climb. You would struggle to design a TT which favours the climbers and the TT men as equally as this.

Cardoso out on course.

He was second in the prologue and he would set an early fast time here of 28'55. But it would not stand as Dowsett soon destroys this time with a time of 27'43.

The Kiwi would be level with Dowsett early on before losing some time to the Brit on the final climb.

When it comes to flat TTs Grabsch has shown he is the best here. He sets a super fast split time of 9'20 which is '8 ahead of McCann, but how would he fair on the final climb?

The German sets a solid looking time of 27'15. This is '12 faster than stage winner O'Grady and '19 faster than the time of TOTC stalwart McCann. With the GC men to come is this good enough for the win?

But the Italian would pass Pate on the steepest part of the course at the finish. Pate would not be in the top 20 come the end of the day.

With the GC men still to come:
Grabsch 27'15
O'Grady + 12
McCann + 19
Keizer + 20
Malori + 22

But prologue winner Bodnar would soon finish, he is '1 down at the split. AND .... finishes just '3 adrift of Grabsch, he is the closet challenger yet.

Pires (Nespresso) finishes just '6 down on Grabsch as the top 10 are still to finish.

Split times by the GC men:
Cummings 9'33
Paulinho +1
De Weert + 2
Tschopp + 9
Clark/Szmyd + 14

Paulinho and Cummings ... would set solid times at the finish. But they would not top the time of Grabsch, both finish around '13 down on the German who looks to have secured the stage win... OR HAS HE?

He may have been '2 down on Cummings and '13 down on Grabsch at the checkpoint but De Weert manages to set the fastest time at the finish! He goes into the lead by '1 over the German TT special beast. What a ride, if the remaining riders don't top this that will be two podiums in two days.

The leader of Aer Lingus would put some time into Szmyd ... but only '6.

Szmyd is the last to finish. It is no stage win but 11th is a decent result. He will be a bit worried that Tschopp managed to put some more time into him today.

After a quiet first 20 days De Weert has announced his presence with two great days in America. It is a 1-3 for Swiss Life on the day. De Weert now has Cummings well and truly in his sights in the battle for fourth after this big win.

Paulinho puts more time into Sella on a good stage for T-Mobile. The battle of 9th is really interesting with Konig, Geschke and Serpa separated by only '12.

Stage Favourites:
*****Petacchi(BOR) ****Feillu(NES) ***Davis(BOR)
**Bozic(PET) *Renshaw(AVI)

This stage has its hills but is one for the sprinters.

Borussia Dortmund chase the early breaks.

10 riders do get away today, they are: Aranzazu, Krivtsov, Chernetskiy, Grau, Arashiro, Wurf, Nys, Parra, Dowsett and McEvoy.

With 60 Km to go the gap to the break is 6'10 with Iberia just setting a simple pace as Szmyd starts his 20th day in the race lead.

With 13 KM to go the break feel they can play cat and mouse and slow up, they have 4'00 over the peloton. The peloton, however, thanks to Nespresso and Borussia Dortmund is now speeding up big time.

As Keizer and O'Grady attack out of the peloton with 10 KM to go the break's advantage has been cut very quickly and is now just over 2'20.

In the last few kilometres the break get their act together and speed up, the peloton look to have left it too late. The sprinter teams just don't have capable domestiques. Dowsett leads the break towards the finish.

As Nespresso lead the peloton with a stage win in mind for Feillu we have some crashes at the rear of the peloton. Many would make it back. Konig, ironically of Nespresso, would not and would tumble down to 12th place in GC.

Arashiro has launched his sprint, Nys desperately tries to cling on to the wheel but looses a big length and then another.

But the sprinters have caught the rear end of the break. Can Arashiro hold off everyone?

Arashiro just holds off the very fast finishing Feillu and Napolitano to take Petro China's second stage win. Nys, 4th, produces another fantastic performance.

Once again, with the break winning, the sprinter teams show they are not strong enough to prevent the break from winning.